Transmigrated as a Cannon Fodder Omega, Their Knees Bent Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Canvassing for Votes

The director was so angry backstage that his hair was practically smoking.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t get in touch with the audio engineer; otherwise, he absolutely would have shut Lou Ting’s mic off!

Even a stage accident would be better than singing “Good Luck Comes” on an idol survival show stage!

Having sensed something amiss and asked him so many times in private if it was that song, what did Lou Ting say?

No, he adapted it.

Ugh… F*ck!!!

An adaptation is based on the original song!

The director was so angry he could suffocate.

“Eh? Eh, Director! Quick, an ambulance!”

Fang Huandong shoved his assistant’s hand away, standing up strong and straight. At this time, Lou Ting was still on stage singing and hyping up the atmosphere.

Who the f*ck is waving red handkerchiefs down below the stage?!

Where did they come from!

Lou Ting had originally been standing in the center of the stage, but when he started changing the rhythm, he circled the edge of the stage like he was taking a stroll, sharing handkerchiefs from his pockets with them.

Finally, he held one himself and returned to the center of the stage, “Good luck comes, our…” He extended the microphone to the audience.

— “GOOD LUCK COMES!!!”

The excited audience waved their little handkerchiefs and shouted at the top of their lungs.

During the closing stage, Lou Ting’s movements of waving his little handkerchief noticeably slowed down, but he still showed no intention of leaving the stage.

Fang Huandong realized something was wrong. He stealthily disguised himself as a backup dancer, spinning three circles onto the stage. Finally, right when Lou Ting sang the last syllable and raised his microphone high, click, the stage lights went out.

Without a second word, Fang Huandong grabbed Lou Ting and dragged him off the stage.

The host watching from the side was completely dumbfounded.

What was this?

Is it over or not?

Should the host go up and say a few words?

Bewildered and innocent.

Eventually, under the signal of the stage manager, the host went on stage to control the situation.

At the same time, someone uploaded a clip of the live broadcast online.

— Lou Ting’s debut stage triggers a tear-jerking mass chorus of ten thousand people!

Good heavens, looking at the title, how infectious! What kind of emotionally stirring song could resonate with so many in the audience?

Those fans who hadn’t bought the live broadcast and were waiting to be fed, along with unaware passersby wanting to join the fun, clicked in one after another.

The beginning was fine, it sounded very good.

Halfway through, the bullet comments uniformly flashed:

[High energy warning ahead!!!]

Was the deeply emotional chorus about to begin?

Everyone stared intensely at the screen, and the next moment…

Fans: “???”

Passersby: “!!!”

We’re f*cking speechless.

Watching a performance and even got handed a handkerchief.

So exquisite.

[I truly never expected this…]

[#Lou Ting Debuts as a Comedian#]

[Good heavens, if you’re not in the Interstellar Spring Festival Gala for the next few years, I won’t be watching!]

[Haha f*ck, whoever wrote this title come out and take a beating. I f*cking thought it would be a touching scene, but your ‘tear-jerking’ meant laughing until we cried???]

[To the bro in the sixth row, I feel your passion. It’s fine to wave your hand if you don’t have a handkerchief, but please stop pulling on your red underwear; I can already see the edge.]

After the lights went out later, although everyone couldn’t see anything, Fang Huandong had disguised himself as a backup dancer and gone on stage while the lights were still on; everyone saw it clearly.

In the end, Lou Ting hastily finished, and when the lights came back on, no one was there.

Was there any need for them to explain what had just happened?

#Lou Ting’s debut stage snatched away by a giant black rat#

Quietly climbed up the trending searches.

Having gotten off the stage, Lou Ting was completely unaware of the unprecedented nationwide entertainment phenomenon online. He straightened his messy cuffs and said regretfully, “I still have one closing verse I didn’t sing.”

Fang Huandong: “…”

That part in the middle almost gave me a heart attack from your singing, and you still want to do a closing verse?

I think you want to collect my corpse!

“You, you, you, you…” Fang Huandong momentarily didn’t know what to say, repeating the word ‘you’ in a string.

Seeing this, Lou Ting comforted him, “Don’t be nervous. It’s not like I’m going to run away; speak slowly if you have something to say.”

“Run? You still want to run? It’s debut night today, where are you trying to run?!” Fang Huandong said, “Having absolutely zero idol baggage like this, aren’t you afraid your fans won’t vote for you?”

Fang Huandong’s biggest worry was that Lou Ting wouldn’t be able to debut. He had advanced triumphantly all the way, and his center position was basically locked in. If a problem occurred on debut night, the fans would definitely scold him for rigging the show.

Lou Ting raised an eyebrow, “Why wouldn’t they vote? Did I not sing well?”

Fang Huandong: “…”

It sounded good, alright.

But…

Fang Huandong sighed; he realized he couldn’t explain this matter properly.

Fang Huandong said, “Forget it, forget it. I’m going to watch the stage. Go check the netizens’ reviews online, and if necessary, step in to control the situation. Did you hear me?”

These matters actually should have been assigned to Lou Ting’s manager to handle, but Lou Ting’s manager was even busier than Lou Ting. He was nowhere to be seen for half the day; by the time he arrived, the daylily would be cold.

Lou Ting nodded obediently, “Understood.”

However, as soon as the director left, Lou Ting directly found a chair and sat down. He hurriedly took out his phone, but showed no intention of opening Weibo. Instead, he stared at the message he had sent to He Yunzhou before going on stage, reading it over and over again.

Nothing.

No response.

Normally, he replied in seconds. This time, so long had passed, yet there was no response.

Lou Ting pursed his lips. Thinking that the man must still be busy, he didn’t send another message.

His fingertips paused, and he reopened the chatting application.

It wasn’t lagging; there truly was no message.

After repeating this action a few times without seeing any message, Lou Ting felt a little disappointed in his heart.

Lou Ting had no choice but to open Weibo to first complete the task assigned by the director, waiting for He Yunzhou’s message while scrolling through Weibo.

Unsurprisingly, he was on the trending searches again.

It happened not long after he got off stage. Because the footage was directly clipped from the live broadcast, it didn’t even require fans to do any editing; it was convenient and fast.

He originally thought it would spark a discussion about this song.

But he hadn’t expected the comments below to be entirely:

[Hahahaha.]

A screen full of ‘hahaha’. With a simple glance, the word count could probably equal the sum of dozens of theses.

No one was pushing a negative narrative to bash him.

Lou Ting found it uninteresting. He felt that after getting together with He Yunzhou, the people cursing him online had decreased.

Just as Lou Ting, out of sheer boredom, switched apps wanting to see reviews on other platforms, he unexpectedly discovered that the official program team of “Return Still a Youth” had posted on Weibo.

Clicking in to take a look.

Return Still a Youth V: This is a vote-canvassing video.

It didn’t look like it was edited last-minute. There were a few shots in it that Lou Ting recognized, the location was still in the training room.

Today happened to be debut night, so posting a vote-canvassing video wasn’t considered too abrupt.

As a result, after watching for a long time, he still hadn’t seen his own shots.

Lou Ting simply dragged the progress bar backward.

He finally saw a shot of his face, with an off-screen voice asking: “Having absolutely zero idol baggage like this, aren’t you afraid your fans won’t vote for you?”

It was Fang Huandong’s voice.

The next moment, he in the camera turned his head. The red colored contacts in his eyes hadn’t been removed yet, and his delicate makeup still had little speckles of glitter. The camera was zoomed in practically right up to his face. Lou Ting blinked his eyes, “Did I not sing well?”

Under the effect of the editing, there was a suspicion of acting cute.

Lou Ting: “???”

I’m not, I didn’t, you’re editing blindly.

[Ahhh yes, yes, yes! You sang exceptionally well! My grandma just heard this song and came over to ask me who was singing. Now I’ve already taught her how to vote and boost the rankings for your stage video!]

[Wuwu, baby is too cute!]

[RIP me!!! Lou Ting acting cute is killing me!!!]

[My great-great-grandmother brought out a handkerchief and did a little twist right on the spot to your music! Ting-bao is super awesome!]

Some of the other trainees’ videos were edited from before, and another portion was recorded backstage like Lou Ting.

However, after the masterful editing by the video editor, it didn’t look very out of place.

It merely felt like a scene transition.

Lou Ting had just gotten off stage, and the fans had just finished watching. They were holding in their rainbow farts, not knowing where to unleash them. This Weibo post was published just in time to satisfy their thirst to speak.

In less than two minutes, the comment section was captured by fans.

There was no need for him to step out and guide the direction of public opinion; the fans created a completely peaceful and harmonious atmosphere.

Passersby who watched the video wouldn’t think too much either; they only felt that the video was very fun and the singing was pretty good.

Fang Huandong’s worry originated from the perspective of fans stanning an idol.

But Lou Ting perfectly integrated his idol identity with this song without much sense of incongruity. Fans edited videos of Lou Ting singing one by one, even taking the initiative to edit little skirts onto him, having a blast.

After watching three consecutive videos with different skirts, Lou Ting turned off his phone.

I can’t watch anymore; next up will be maid outfits.

Right at this moment, Liang Caijin came down from the stage. Seeing Lou Ting sitting here all by himself, he was a bit unaccustomed to it, “Where is Mr. He?”

On such an important occasion, Mr. He wasn’t by his side?

Debut night might just be an opportunity to form a group and boost popularity for others, but for Lou Ting, it was equivalent to a ‘rebirth’.

When Lou Ting first debuted, he was so high-spirited and vigorous. Afterwards, he encountered suppression and suffered so much. Having finally made it onto this show with high popularity and basically locking in a center debut, a brand new starting point that would allow him to soar—if this wasn’t a rebirth, then what was?

But…

At a time like this, He Yunzhou’s absence was somewhat unjustifiable.

Lou Ting also cared quite a bit about this debut night. Setting aside his previous memories, this was his official debut stage in the Interstellar Era, yet He Yunzhou wasn’t here.

But Lou Ting inexplicably felt that this kind of emotion was somewhat pretentious. Naturally, he wouldn’t say anything to Liang Caijin, only muttering vaguely, “He’s been rather busy recently.”

Liang Caijin blanked, “Busy? But the time for the company’s annual meeting has already been set, what else is he busy with?”

He Yunzhou’s job was to approve documents. Some documents were vetted layer by layer before reaching him; all He Yunzhou had to do was reject or approve them.

Now that even a minor matter like the annual meeting’s schedule had been decided, there shouldn’t be any major matters left, right?

If there were major matters, the annual meeting schedule would definitely be brought up only after everything had been handled.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Liang Caijin realized he might have spoken out of turn.

He hurriedly added, “The height Mr. He stands at is different from mine. Their work being very busy is true. I only heard my manager briefly mention the annual meeting. There are many matters approaching the end of the year; Mr. He must definitely be busy with other things. Don’t worry too much.”

It was getting darker the more he tried to cover it up. Lou Ting said helplessly, “I’m not worried. He’ll come find me when he’s done.”

Seeing this, Liang Caijin also breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn’t let his own words affect the relationship between the two of them. “It’s good that you think that way. If you miss him, making a call is the same. Sometimes messages go unseen and unreplied to, but for someone with Mr. He’s status, his phone won’t be muted; he’ll definitely answer if you call.”

How could Lou Ting not know he could call? But if he was so busy that he didn’t even have time to reply to messages, calling would only add to He Yunzhou’s troubles.

Lou Ting only said, “Let’s wait until he’s done.”

The moment his voice fell, his phone buzzed and began to ring.

The ‘bzz bzz’ vibration made his wrist feel a bit numb.

Liang Caijin said, “Mr. He?”

Lou Ting nodded and answered the call, “Hello?”

He Yunzhou chuckled lightly and asked, “Baby, do you know what day it is today?”

Translator’s Note: To clarify a Chinese idiom used in this chapter: “the daylily would be cold” (黃花菜都涼了). This is a very common saying that simply means it’s too late for something! Also, “rainbow farts” translates to extreme flattery, a staple internet phrase for over-the-top fan praise.